St. Bernard's battles in close defeat

FITCHBURG -- The St. Bernard's boys' basketball team just battles and battles and battles.

The Bernardians once again showed grit, gut, heart and determination against Central Mass. Conference rival St. John's of Shrewsbury.

The Pioneers led by 13 points late in the third quarter, but watched St. Bernard's fight right back and claim a narrow one-point lead in the fourth quarter.

But St. John's was poised down the stretch, scoring seven straight points and holding off St. Bernard's for a hard-fought 61-55 victory at a packed Activity Center Friday evening.

"I'm very proud of the way the kids fought the whole game," St. Bernard's coach Mark Pierce said. "We kind of let them get ahead of us in the first quarter and we had to play catch-up all night. We could have easily folded tonight. We battled back one possession at a time.

"All I asked them was to play very hard tonight let the chips fall where they may. I think they did that. Yes, we're disappointed that we lost the game, but we're going to use this game to learn from and to make us better."

St. John's (5-3, 2-1) led 43-30 with 1:55 left in the third quarter, but senior guard John Crawley put St. Bernard's (8-2, 0-2) on his back, scoring eight points in the quarter to cut the deficit to 43-37.

Crawley added two straight buckets to open the fourth quarter to pull the Bernardians to within 43-41.

After a St. John's basket, St. Bernard's senior guard Austin Wood buried a 3-pointer as the Pioneers clung to a 45-44 advantage.

Advertisement

St. Bernard's took its only lead of the second half at 49-48 when Wood faked a jumper, drove strong in the lane for the hoop and hit the free throw to complete a three-point play with 4:50 left as the Dawg Pound went wild in the stands.

But St. John's sophomore guard Davon Jones -- scoreless in the first half -- briefly silenced the crowd by nailing a trey.

St. Bernard's senior center Andrew Baron canned a long 2-pointer to deadlock the score at 51-51, but the Pioneers calmly raced out on a 7-0 run, fueled by Charlie Murray's jumper and Jones' three-point play after getting fouled and hitting a fast-break layup.

"St. Bernard's has a very good basketball team and Mark does a great job with his kids," said St. John's coach Bob Foley, whose team snapped a three-game losing skid. "We knew they were going to come back and we talked about counter-punching. They made their run and went up one, and we came right down court and scored."

Freshman guard Adham Floyd, who hobbled off with a knee injury in the second quarter, delivered two big free throws to cap off the mini-spurt, which proved to be the back-breaker.

A lack of execution late cost the Bernardians, according to their head coach.

"We had our opportunities -- we had some looks that we needed to hit," Pierce said. "They probably outplayed us in the very beginning of the game and the end of the game. In between, we played very hard and played pretty well.

"We had some good looks and I think we had one turnover in that stretch, but we've got to hit some shots. They did and we didn't. That's what it came down to in the last couple of minutes."

Crawley (game-high 20 points, 16 in the second half), Wood and Baron were all monsters for the Bernardians in the second half.

"(Crawley) struggled in the first quarter and that's a tribute to (St. John's) because they play great defense," Pierce said. "As the game wore on, he didn't come out too much in the second half. ... I don't think he came out at all. He gutted that whole second half out with guys hanging all over him. He was not going to be denied."

Wood hit two treys and scored 11 of his 13 points in the final 16 minutes, while Baron simply couldn't be stopped on the offensive and defensive glass with 10 total boards and 12 points for a double-double.

"I thought Andy Baron played tremendous on the boards," Pierce said. "He was a man on the boards tonight."

In the first quarter, the Pioneers caught fire and led 19-8 after one. St. Bernard's trailed by 13 twice in the second quarter, 21-8 and 23-10, but got itself back into the game as Baron went off for six points, including an easy layup off a feed from Crawley -- who slipped and was on his way to falling to the floor -- and four straight free throws. Wood added a transition layup to cut the deficit to 31-22 at the half.

T.J. Kelley led St. John's with 16 points. Floyd had 13, while Jones and Murray scored 10 apiece.

Welcome to your discussion forum: Sign in with a Disqus account or your social networking account for your comment to be posted immediately, provided it meets the guidelines. (READ HOW.)
Comments made here are the sole responsibility of the person posting them; these comments do not reflect the opinion of The Sentinel and Enterprise. So keep it civil.